Winning in the Age of Bohonomics

Archive for the tag “TBL”

Inarguably are we entering a new era where all kind of measuring based on the means of the industrial age are passé, and not only that. They can be pernicious as well. An old saying claims that you get what you measure and that is quite true – we have been measuring beans and coins and that is what we’ve got, lot’s of money somewhere marked with a minus and somewhere else with a plus. Funny thing is that actually the beans and coins game has ended up as a minus sum game as the global debt shambles is out of control.

Companies CSR efforts have not resulted in radical betterings partly perhaps because they are used merely as tools for PR.

In 1994 John Elkington suggested Triple Bottom Line approach where the companies bottom line should be expressed three dimensionally: people, planet & profit. The idea faded away with cost cutting being the main priority for businesses.

An interesting discussion about Shared Value is going on and leading us once again to discuss capitalism and it’s benefits and flaws. Prof Michael Porter presents a positive view while John Elkington is a bit dubious.

Why is the discussion of the bottom line and capitalism so important for the modern Bohemians and BohoBusinesses? We do not believe that money is going away as a tool for exchange. As Prof. Tom G. Palmer says: money is an tool for dignified exchange of products and services. As a creative worker I more than agree with Tom’s statement, bartering can be satisfactory for some time but in the long run it brings about dissonance between people. Well, and does not contribute to the society in form of taxes neither.

When thinking about the new solutions for businesses to contribute to the common global good we cannot and should not forget the people’s and companies pursuit to win and by so means create profits that can be invested in new endeavors for development and better lives.

Therefore we see that the Bohemian way to look at sustainable business, BohoBusiness, is the win*win(+win). In this equation the partie’s create multiple wins and also cause beneficial impacts to third parties. In other words we are not denying the creation of wealth, profitable business and the thriving of individuals, teams and organizations but we suggest they along with their strategies and actions strive to find ways to contribute to the society and the planet as well, not only as individual companies but as a part of partnerships as well.

In the win*win(+win) way we believe that the Bohobusinesses can take CSR, Shared Value and TBL into their strategies, tactics, operations and daily actions. The win*win(+win) provides also the artistic and innovative Bohemians an ethical scheme to look at their work also from the point of view of profits and on the other hand for the economics and material oriented a way to take the +win as a part of their paradigm.

Actually the +win is the key to great victories and profits in the more and more robotizing world. The deals between partners are often times such that they do not require broad and creative intelligence. Seeing the future, the planet and the needs of humanity on the other hand require such abilities to conceive that the robots are hardly getting there yet in some decades.

Besides, we are here to have fun, enjoy our lives, our families, to work with passion, to connect and cooperate with others. We all have unique talents and skills. It is our birthright to live up to our best selves. This is to win and with win*win(+win) we can multiply the joy and make life and business a co-thriving journey.